When trying to live a healthier lifestyle, many people make big changes and then get overwhelmed. Big changes in your life are not easily sustainable and many times cause negative results because they are difficult to maintain. All habits we have are either habits of disease or habits of health. So what are the best small changes that will help you make positive changes?

Dr. Steve shares these three tips for making small changes into lasting habits of health:

Food Choices

When you go to order food start taking small steps to a healthier diet.

For example:

Get a side salad instead of fries

Choose a grilled chicken sandwich over a hamburger

If you must have a hamburger eat it without the top bun and ask for no sauce and no cheese

Drink water instead of soda

Your Mindset

Your thinking is also very important when it comes to reaching optimal health. Never think of a healthy lifestyle as a deprivation. Make sure you are making choices that fulfill you in a healthy way. A good way to keep from feeling deprived is to not cut out all unhealthy foods or desserts. Instead only eat a portion of what you would normally eat instead of the whole thing.

Ease into Physical Activity

Another important tip is don’t start an intense workout program when you haven’t worked out in years or if you are over weight. Start by making small changes to your diet and then introduce exercise. Our Take Shape for Life program takes you through this step-by-step.

Stay Focused

The last small change that is very important is to challenge yourself to make healthy choices before you even develop an unhealthy habit. For example if you are going to a summer pool party where there are going to be many unhealthy food choices, don’t automatically deprive yourself. Instead look at the situation and decide based on the consequences of each decision. Maybe choose to eat a healthy food before you go and then focus on eating smaller portions and sticking to the best choices possible.

At Optimal Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention Center, we offer a customized wellness program to help you achieve optimal health.